Sunday, February 3, 2013

Hello, Hytyme friends! Sorry for the delay in posts! A lot of cool stuff has happened during the month of January, so we'll let this blog entry cover the first few weeks of 2013. The first part of the month was cold--but dry!--and we had the usual weather-related concerns. Cameo seemed to need some extra grain and attention, so she came to live with Rosa inside. Cameo is in her late twenties, and she is relishing all the activity and food inside the main barn!

In this picture, Delilah and her pals are eating from a 575-pound round bale covered with a slow-feed haynet. Notice how the haynet is connected to some boards on the ground. That is an invention by our fabulous volunteer, Doug. It was a little time consuming attaching the hay net to the bale every time one needed to be replaced. Jim told Doug how he could use a contraption to help cover the bale. Doug suggested an idea, and it worked. We call it the "Doug net."It turns out that Doug has been quite busy coming up with ways to help Hytyme this month. Doug thought we needed some new safe tying areas in the arena. We use Blocker Tie Rings. It turns out that Ted Blocker lives in Estacada! Ted Blocker has toured with Clinton Anderson and is a real proponent of natural horsemanship methods. Doug contacted Ted Blocker, and he came out to the barn! He donated three extra Blocker Tie Rings, and now we have lots of safe places to tie horses available around the property. Thanks, Ted!

Speaking of tying, Doug came up with another excellent addition to the barn using the Blocker Tie Rings. In the above picture, fabulous volunteer Diane and Natasha model Doug's latest invention--crossties! It's a huge help to have the crossties available with new lighting in the main barn. Thanks, Doug!

Diane is working with Natasha, Isis, Vanilla Bean, and Abby. All are doing great! Speaking of which, Diane and Doug have been able to work with Yuma, one of our long-term residents who is very fearful of people. Great job, guys! Thank you for taking on the most difficult horses as projects and getting them ready for adoption!

This weekend, we had our friend Dr. Rosario do teeth floating for Hope and Dallas. Both older mares needed to have their teeth fixed so they could enjoy all the benefits of their hay and grain. Dallas also had an eye injury to treat, and after a round of antibiotic ointment, she'll be fine! More to come soon! We have lots of exciting upcoming events. Here's a video our friend Michelle made of many of the drum and rescue horses at Hytyme. It's a neat video! Sunday at the Barn

Friday, December 14, 2012

It's been a sad week at Hytyme. We lost one of our original equine residents, the wonderful Coal. In his former life, Coal was a hunter-jumper pony, and he arrived at the rescue dyed black to disguise his grey hairs and obvious age. He also had a heart murmur. He was totally devoted to two horses and a donkey during his tenure at Hytyme: Masquerade (pictured above and below), Old Christy, and Rosa. Coal was probably at least thirty years old, and he'd been doing so well this past year thanks to a personalized feeding system. He was a good friend, and we'll all miss him forever. What a good horse--a true character. Goodbye, Coal.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Hi everyone! Happy Thanksgiving from all of the humans and horses at Hytyme! Hopefully you've enjoyed a lovely day with your family and friends (equine members included!). We've got an exciting new partnership to announce for the upcoming holiday season! Zara May's Handcrafted Fudge, makers of all-natural and organic fudge, want to help the Hytyme horses and have established a fundraiser for us. They'll donate 25% of their fudge sales to our rescue! Here's the link to the order forms, where you can peruse all the delicious options: http://www.zaramay.com/hytyme_equine_rescue_fundraiser/index.html

They're also displaying some of our current and former horses on their site--Hope, Shannon, Ada, Christy, and Masquerade and Coal. Share the link with your friends! Who doesn't want fudge for the holidays?